"You may be Right!"

"You may be Right!"

Mindfulness, how do we achieve it, after all, aren't we thinking all day long, are we not aware of our minds and our thoughts? NO, our minds are constantly streaming incoming events all day long and most of them we are NOT aware of. Autopilot can be a fantastic feature, but also a dangerous one too, especially if we are reacting first.

Let us awaken to not only being aware but being aware of the awareness.

Let's practice being aware of what flies out of our mouths, what flows into our minds and what cultivates our hearts. Most of us tend to react to life instead of taking it in first and then possibly respond. Sometimes the only response needed is; "You may be right". We are all in this together, like it or not! Dolby Dharma

"I continue to cultivate loving connections, being compassionate and kind whenever people, myself included, choose to speak negative words, for we all do from time to time. We are positively connected in this negativity thing, and everything else. Let compassion, kindness, and love unite us all. So, it is!" ~Tiny Buddha

"Hear Ye Hear Ye"

"Hear Ye Hear Ye"

Day Twenty-Six of the Self-love 31-day 5-minute Challenge: Judgments

I invite you today to spend five minutes thinking about where can you judge less. When you find yourself having endless thoughts about another person's behaviors that you are judging good or bad, ask yourself this question as you are pointing out that behavior in other; Do I display this same attitude or behavior? Often, what 'irks' us in another is something in ourselves we need to address.
Below is an excellent article by Ram Dass I thought I would share. 💞Dolby Dharma

"Watch how your mind judges. Judgment comes, in part, out of your own fear. You judge other people because you’re not comfortable in your own being. By judging, you find out where you stand in relation to other people. The judging mind is very divisive. It separates. Separation closes your heart. If you close your heart to someone, you are perpetuating your suffering and theirs. Shifting out of judgment means learning to appreciate your predicament and their predicament with an open heart instead of judging. Then you can allow yourself and others to just be, without separation.

The only game in town is the game of being, which includes both highs and lows. Every time you push something away, it remains there. The pile under the rug gets very big. Your lows turn out to be more interesting than your highs because they are showing you where you’re not, where you have work to do.

You just say, “Thank you for teaching.” You don’t have to judge another being. You just have to work on yourself.

When somebody provokes your anger, the only reason you get angry is that you’re holding on to how you think something is supposed to be. You deny how it is. Then you see it’s the expectations of your own mind that are creating your own hell. When you get frustrated because something isn’t the way you thought it would be, examine the way you thought, not just the thing that frustrates you. You’ll see that a lot of your emotional suffering is created by your models of how you think the universe should be and your inability to allow it to be as it is." ~ Ram Dass On Judgment of Others - Ram Dass."

The Mantra: I am a loving presence without judging right or wrong.

“Often those that criticize others reveal what he himself lacks.” ― Shannon L. Alder

"A 'Beary' Merry Blessing."

"A 'Beary' Merry Blessing."

Day Seventeen of the Self-love 31-day 5-minute challenge: Blessings

Today I invite you to feel how truly blessed you are, just look around you and feel your heart expand knowing that life can be hard at times, but life is great most of the time, there are so many reasons to count blessings; Begin as soon as you wake up!

Blessings come wrapped in the ordinary and unordinary circumstances. Just go out in nature today and feel life, look around you and know that every tree is full of angels. The sun lights the earth and radiates blessings all day long. The full moon bathes us in magical energy and illumination. The birds sing mantras to keep us awake to the miracles in life. Nothing more beautiful than the flight of a bird soaring above.

Hidden beauty is waiting in the unknown, we don't always see it, or feel it, it is just there protecting us, guiding us throughout our days.

Blessings are not religious, blessings are our birthright magic, we were born into blessings. Take moments throughout the day and bring yourself back to you; close our eyes, embrace your breath, open your hearts and believe in the blessings and miracles that surround you everywhere, receive them and acknowledge life's gifts.

Today as we gather around our families and friends, or even if we are alone, look around and within, breathe in love for this moment, nothing more. We all have something that creates that inward feeling of gratitude. Live in the now, wake-up and feel yourself come alive and know you are blessed! Dolby Dharma

The Mantra: I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams. I trust Blessings are doing beautiful things in my life even when I can’t see them.

“This new day has greeted us with no rules; unlimited opportunity. Do not dilute the power of this new day with the hardship of yesterday. Greet this day the way it has greeted you; with open arms and endless possibility.” ~~Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

We don't have to suffer from anger!

Thích Nhất Hạnh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist. He calls anger a “habit energy.” A quick reaction to a situation or an event can trigger a response of anger. Just drive in your car and see how fast anger shows up, and how you respond. Zero to bitch happens to me sometimes, and when I become aware of that moment, I see myself, my behavior, not so much the other guy.

We need all our emotions to guide us and inform us about what is going on within and around us. Without this compass, we would be void of expressions and emotions.

Often we beat ourselves up with our emotions, naming them, and shaming ourselves with negative self-talk and expressing them upon ourselves and others.

Our emotional habits offer us opportunity to see ourselves deeply if we are willing to take a look with a compassionate heart. To understand that all our emotions are a part of knowing ourselves more and others too.

Most often the emotional triggers are deeply rooted in some storyline that we believe to be true about ourselves and the outside world.

Next time you feel anger towards yourself, someone, something or a situation, 'pause' if possible; that can be possible when you are aware that anger controls you in a lot of situations.

Anger is always pointing towards something about ourselves. It is an opportunity to see where we get hung up. It is a chance to react differently, to give yourself compassion and understanding.

Anger won't go away; it is a necessary emotional component of our humanness, it sets our personal boundaries, it wakes us up, and it comes and goes. With awareness, we can become unstuck in our ingrained habit of reactions and learn to express ourselves in a much kinder way. Karla McLaren says, when we channel emotional energy mindfully, it restores our boundaries and sense of honor. When mismanaged it dishonors all you are in contact with including yourself.

If you want to get in touch with what your feelings are trying to tell you, Karla McLaren wrote a fantastic, insightful book, 'The Language of Emotions.'

Practice peace even in a moment of anger! Dolby Dharma

“When you say something unkind, when you do something in retaliation your anger increases. You make the other person suffer, and he will try hard to say or to do something back to get relief from his suffering. That is how conflict escalates.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh, Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames

Acceptance!

When I think of acceptance, I think of mindfulness. When we consciously accept a situation that we have no control over changing we change our course of action; the biggest change is our attitudes towards the unwanted situation.

When we can't change it, do we lean in or do we carry on complaining about the situation 'as if' that is going to make it more acceptable?

The practice is not to push against the undesirable, not to tear it apart, but to become mindful of our existence to whatever it is that we can change and change what we can, quietly, without notice.

Acceptance helps us stay in the balance, stay healthy and steady. It raises our vibration and affords us the stability to make changes that can benefit us and everyone.

Pushing against life is what throws us off, and ultimately makes what we don't like worse than it already appeared.

By accepting life, it is to experience the rawness, the unaltered moments, to meet life as it is, feel the experience and make changes if acceptable. Some things in life cannot be altered, and that is our greatest moment of accepting 'what is,' and let go of the struggle.
Acceptance is Mystical, Powerful, and healing. It affords us peace within our hearts for ourselves and others. Dolby Dharma

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” 
― Lao Tzu